Who Am I To Be? Over the course of time, each individual in this world has developed their own distinctive personality and behavior. However, what exactly contributes to the building blocks of who we become and how we act? Due to the complex human structure and development, both psychologists and sociologists have looked to the ideas of nature and nurture for answers, but have grown more puzzled than ever. Often, society chooses to promote the one they may think causes the greater impact, but how do we determine that? In psychology, nature refers to an individual’s innate qualities (or in other terms; genetics) while nurture refers to personal experiences; both of which consists of multiple factors that will soon paint a bigger picture of …show more content…
For instance, the author’s mother; Joy sees how poor the public school system becomes and decides to send her children to private school. Even though the cost was difficult to manage, she decides to work multiple jobs and relies on her parents to care for her children in order to pay for schooling. Wes may not instantly realize this, but he is slowly being influenced by his mother’s characteristics of determination and strength, in which he will soon apply to himself as time progresses. After seeing Wes’s grades dropping in school due to his lack of confidence in his abilities , she then makes the decision of sending the author to Valley Forge Military Academy – leading up to her breaking point. “The final straw came one evening while she sat downstairs on the phone listening to my dean from Riverdale explain why they were placing me on academic and disciplinary probation” (Moore 87). As an adolescent, expectations begin to emerge from our loved ones, and with a natural instinct we often choose to use it as a stepping stone towards our development, just as the author states, “The expectations that others place on us, help us to form our expectations of ourselves” (Moore 126). Wes Moore the author notes that our surrounding expectations affect our subconscious greatly due to our natural adoption of other …show more content…
The most common transition of environment takes place at school, in which children attempt to fit into various groups in order to develop their social skills and by doing so, peers become influential in areas such as learning to cooperate with each other or moral contribution. We as humans require the means of social interaction in order to tend to our necessary needs, both mentally and physically. Without positive durable relationships, both our minds and bodies begin to fall apart. However, there has been a common issue of whether the direction of friends’ influence is positive or negative. In other words, does a friend’s influence generally lead to desirable or undesirable changes in children’s attitudes and behaviors? Quite frankly, the social pressure that friends exert on each other also leads to the questioning of how strong their influences can be, and for a period of time researchers have carried out research experiments assessing the possible negative influences that are projected. For example, an adolescent’s friends may choose to drink alcohol, use drugs, and decide to put very little effort into their school work. Some adolescents have friends who constantly invite them to spend time in social activities rather